that's not about how you must do things, that's about how I do things.

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

7 Web Marketing Lessons from a 6 year old Kid

Children see the world in a simple, but very wise perspective. We, as grown ups, apply everything we have learnt and whatever we have learnt is the experience exchange coming from our educational and social backgrounds, MBAs and master degrees. Kids see the world simpler and therefore the ideas they have are wise and unique. Interesting enough that if you have an idea and you are able to present it to a kid and this kid gets it, then everyone else with understand it.

So this is what I have learnt and willing to share.

1. We are skeptics

"Why should I do this? Why should I buy this unnecessary at first sight thing? Why do I need to eat vegetables? "- Six years old children and your target audience have one thing in common: they are constantly asking questions. This is their way to learn something new and, ultimately, become more intelligent.

Be prepared to honestly and quickly respond to all questions, so you will win the trust - either children or adults as your potential customers. Learn to find a common language with any companion and have a constructive dialogue.

Question: "Why should I deal with you?".Correct answer: "We care about you, we have something that will help you succeed in business, something that will make your life better!".Wrong answer: "We are targeting customers like you using methods of semantic analysis. The use of secret techniques allows us to get the highest ROI in the industry! ".

2. Incentives/right motivations make the world move forward

Ask six year old child to help you wash the dishes round 6 am on Saturday. Can you imagine what kind of face expression will you get in return? Now imagine that you wake the kid at the same time on Saturday morning to remind him that it's time to go for a long-awaited trip to the amusement park. You have a chance to see the most radiant smile in your life!

When designing landing pages, use a similar principle: make sure that your page has incentives that resonate with the goals and needs of the target audience. Offer visitors some reward for what they are, for example, fill out your lead form - a discount on merchandise, a free download trial version, download eBook, subscribe to the newsletter, and so on. i.e. give them an incentive that they can not but accept.

Question: "Why should I deal with you?".Correct answer: "We will give you a chance to learn for free something new, we will help you free of charge succeed in your business."Wrong answer, "Because I said so!".

3. "Serious" means "boring"!

Think about your childhood and lots of fun comes to mind and definitely not boring and endless "quiet hours", right? Now remember, both children and adults are in need for emotional involvement!

Business is a serious stuff, no doubt about it, and, of course, there are times when you need to put on a strict gray suit and go to the bank for a loan or take part in negotiations to sing an important contract. But when you write a title or other content for your landing page it does not need to be "buttoned": It is desirable to keep a balance between the serious meaning of your offer and an easy going tone of its presentation.

Do not be afraid to use some "frivolous" color and font design solutions for your offer, do not adhere to a strict formal tone (no extreme stuff!).

Question: "Why should I deal with you?".Correct answer: "We are aggressive enough to achieve these objectives, we are able to laugh at our own mistakes, easy to perceive constructive criticism, and are not offended by comments made to us and you can with us without harm to your mental health!". :)))Wrong answer: (you silently demonstrate complicated black and white chart, made in Excel).

4. People are afraid of unwanted surprises

Remember the "good old days" when the entire Internet was winking as traffic lights, showing the wildest-looking graphics and animation published and the amazing sounds were heard when the page loaded? The effect produced by all this splendor on the inexperienced user was approximately comparable to the way children are hiding from the clown, invited by their parents to the sixth birthday. Adult clown seems ridiculous, but the kids run away in fright.

The same thing happens with the landing page: intrusive and unnecessary page elements deter users as the most "scary clown." Ease of graphic and text content landing page - this is your main priority.

Question: "Why should I deal with you?".Correct answer: "We prefer a simple and intuitive design of the page, we want the user feel on it comfortably, our calls to action are to describe what will press on this button the downloading of a file begins or you sign up for our webinar, and so on."Wrong answer: "Click here!".

5. Everyone loves pleasant surprises

Scary clown from childhood falls into the category of unpleasant surprises. But there are also pleasant surprises! Keep this in mind when communicating with your target audience: send to your subscribers or leads unexpected, but pleasant, to be exact a free and useful information/offer. Get used to think beyond as your subscription base may, for example, become a full-fledged information channel that can help to retain existing and attract new customers (instantaneous conversion advertising messages/mails usually leads to failure).

Question: "Why should I deal with you?".Correct answer: "Because we want you to be happy."Wrong answer: "Because we know better what is good for you and healthy!".

6. Simplicity and elegance

Without any doubt, our adult world is suffering from information overload. In a world of six-year olds the situation is better as the child is not yet saturated with useless knowledge and information, his world is simple and it is a place of fantasy. Check out this statement by experimenting: encourage your child to choose from the most popular video game on the market and a simple cardboard box and he is likely to choose the box that the power of his imagination can turn into anything - a racing car, a tank or a spaceship.

Children have an amazing ability to turn simple things into genuine works of art, give them a pencil and a sheet of paper, and you make sure that the children's possibilities are endless. Your landing pages should be so simple that they could use and child. A lot of choice - you have already seen it from both consumer and web marketer perspective - often leads users to a deny any choice and run away.

Question: "Why should I deal with you?".Correct answer: "We increase customer loyalty by bringing them to your site, especially if they are already interested in your product."Wrong answer: "Our re-targeting techniques are based on complex semantic models for manipulating user behavior."

7. People need only structured information

Children go to kindergarten to get basic life skills for the real world. The most important of these skills are learning the basics of a structured thinking. Growing up, people use the same method to achieve the highest professionalism: a boy that was making a tower out of blocks can become a worldwide recognized architect and a very sociable kid can become a UN Secretary General. But the basic elementary knowledge is literacy and numeracy that our heroes acquired in childhood.

Same with the target audience as your user first sees your brand, hitting on your landing page. Take the time to give him a basic understanding of why it is beneficial to cooperate with you. Give the user an opportunity to learn more about you the most simple and easy way. This is facilitated by a persuasive text offer, intuitive call to action, a simple and attractive design of the page.

Question: "Why should I buy your product / service?".Correct answer: "Look at this video and you will understand that we are the best design Bureau!".Wrong answer: "Our products speak for themselves. Unless you are so stupid that they can not understand it? ".